Industrial robots have been in use since the 1960's, with the automobile industry being the first to apply such technology. Later, other industries applied robots to their manufacturing processes, increasing productivity, as well as accuracy and repeatability. Robots have been used for orthopedic surgery since the early 1990's. The ROBODOC system was the first to do the bone resections for joint replacement using a robot with a mill that profiled he surfaces of the bone in the proper shape and orientation to receive prosthesis. Laker MAKO Surgical produced the RIO system which is used to perform partial knee and total hip replacement surgery. Mazor Robotics currently makes the Renaissance robotic surgery system to assist in the performance of spinal surgeries.
In the field of Robotics, the end effector is the device at the end of the robotic arm that interacts with the work environment of the robotic system. Some example of end effectors in industrial robotics are grippers, designed to grab and release an item when the robot is used for pick and place operations, an arc welder, when the robot is used for welding operations, or a spray paint nozzle, when the robot is used for painting operations. In the case of the ROBODOC robot, the end effector is a pistol-shaped pneumatic drill equipped with a milling cutter, used for cutting the proximal tibia.
Robots are currently utilized in spine surgery to provide axial alignment to the pedicles and to control the depth of the tool or implant being inserted into the pedicle. The software utilizes CT data from the patient to help the surgeon plan a surgery in a virtual environment. During the operation, a positioning rack may be attached to the patient's spine and acts as a fixed base. Anteroposterior (AP) and Medio-Lateral (ML) X-rays are used to create a 3-dimensional (3D) alignment of the patient that matches the patient's CT data and used to create a coordinate system (for example, X, Y, X, Yaw, Pitch and Roll) for the robot to use.